Share this:

If you’re going to sweat this summer, you may as well have fun. This week’s sports mags tell you how.

You don’t have to be an eight-minute miler to read Runner’s World. The latest issue features an inspiring story on runner Alicia Shay, whose husband Ryan collapsed and died during last year’s Olympic trials in Central Park. You will be rooting for Shay to honor her husband’s memory en route to the Summer Olympics in Beijing.

Bicycling shows how to beat stress and save big bucks by biking to work. The issue also offers loads of gear, from the correct shoes to the latest affordable bikes. The sport is much more involved (and expensive) than the nostalgic biking of youth, but as the cover story says, it can keep you healthy and balanced.

Racket aficionados will be eager to get swinging on courts like those offered in Tennis magazine’s wrap-up on dream vacation resorts for tennis players. Posh places around the world can cost up to $1,800 a night, but the pampering appears to be worth it. While dreaming of the trip, practice some of the mag’s tips, such as James Blake’s inside-out forehand.

Yachting magazine may be filled with profiles of boats that take more to gas up than most people have in their bank accounts, but it’s always fun to dream. This month’s issue features several triple-decker floating homes made by famous yacht builders for anonymous clients. Our favorite pieces are on yachting adventures to the Galapagos Islands and marina-hopping in the Caribbean.

Time says John McCain‘s secret weapon in the race for the White House is his ability to do folksy chatting, a contrast to the brainy oratory of Barack Obama. The mag also revives the forgotten debate over the $1 billion wall Uncle Sam is building on the US-Mexico border. On the family front is a special report on whether parents should drink with their kids.

With Michelle Obama’s face plastered everywhere, Newsweek looks smart by taking a look at Cindy McCain. The cover sets out to show the presidential hopeful’s spouse as more than just a Stepford wife. The heiress of an Arizona beer distributor spends much of her free time doing volunteer work, as all good, rich women do. But the mag shows her as someone who gets her hands dirty, such as the time she took two abandoned girls to live with her and adopted one of them.

The New Yorker offers up the complex but interesting tale of Sheldon Adelson, a multibillionaire who is having a growing influence in US and Israeli politics. Among Adelson’s political maneuverings: a free daily newspaper in Israel published in an effort to return Benjamin Netanyahu to power.

New York peppers politics with pieces on how to enjoy the summer. Sandwiching an article on Obama’s oratorical challenge for the Democratic National Convention are colorful spreads on how to eat a lobster and make ice pops. The lead article on Central Park is a bit overblown, however. It shows the park teeming with divided interests – cyclists are fighting joggers, while dog owners want to kill bikers. Um, isn’t this New York?